THE whole of Tyne and Wear should celebrate the news this week that the Government has committed around £580 million to the modernisation and running costs of Metro.

This is the biggest funding ever awarded to Metro in its 30-year history. It follows Government funding we have won to build the Sunderland line and for new ticket machines at every station, to be installed from this year, which will accept notes and cards for the first time.

It is an historic moment for Metro and comes after a great deal of hard work by Nick Brown MP, the minister for the North East, the Tyne and Wear Integrated Transport Authority, Nexus, and many others.

Metro passengers can look forward to a steep change in quality in the years ahead as trains are completely rebuilt, stations are refurbished and millions of pounds of work goes on behind the scenes to ensure trains run smoothly and reliably.

Nexus will continue to own Metro as a public service and the ITA will set fares, as we do now, having just frozen them all in price for 2010.

All in all, this is a great deal for Metro and the North East, and shows the Government recognises our vision for improving sustainable transport into our town and city centres.

Coun David Wood, chairman of the Tyne and Wear Integrated Transport Authority.

CHRIS Jarvie from Seaton Sluice has leukaemia. As with too many English cancer patients, he can not have the treatment dasatinib or nilotinib on the NHS. The treatment is free in Scotland but, because Chris Jarvie is English, he must pay up or die.

Home Secretary Jack Straw was once challenged about this discrimination but he said: “That is the price of the union.”

The English Democrats believe that our union with Scotland is not worth a single English life.

Healthcare and other things are better in Scotland because they have their own Parliament and a Prime Minister and Chancellor in Westminster who have signed “the Scottish Claim of Rights”, meaning they must put Scotland’s interests first.

Scotland is able to spend £50bn more than it raises in taxes – the English pick up the bill.

Until a Westminster government recognises England’s right to nationhood – as they have recognised Scotland’s – and give us our own parliament, English cancer patients such as Chris Jarvie will continue to face discrimination at the hands of this Scottish apartheid system.

RECENTLY, there was a touching appeal for information on silent calls from a reader suffering from this particularly modern nuisance.

I just wanted the person to know you can find advice on the Ofcom website http://ask.ofcom. org.uk/help/telephone/silent_calls_ what_can_ I_do

Companies who make silent calls are breaking Ofcom guidelines and, if you have the number, you should report them to Ofcom. Your phone company may also be able to help, either by barr-ing anonymous calls or by barring calls from particular locations.

SO David Cameron thinks MPs who refuse to pay back expenses as requested should have the money taken from their salary or redundancy pay. What redundancy pay?

As far as I am aware, it is the job that becomes redundant not the person.

If someone is sacked or leaves a job they will not be entitled to any redundancy payment if the job still exists. Of course, in his privileged position of never having to worry about money, I don’t suppose he’s ever thought about the subject.

You would have thought, though, that given the public’s anger at the expenses scandal, he would have taken the trouble to get a fact such as this right.